


The Reason Keith Hates Math

by spacegaysgettingspacelaid



Series: Gosh Dang Galra and Their Meanie-Head Monsters [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Insecurities, M/M, Nonbinary Pidge | Katie Holt, PTSD kinda, coran is basically a ninja, hunk and pidge are bamfs tbh, keith is not okay with this, lance and pidge are secretly besties, lance isn't either, lance my bb, the team kind of tries to kill keith?? lol whoops, there are two keiths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-10
Updated: 2016-10-10
Packaged: 2018-08-21 19:03:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8256998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacegaysgettingspacelaid/pseuds/spacegaysgettingspacelaid
Summary: Lance Squared was bad enough. Keith squared is just obnoxious, like a fly buzzing around your face.
At least, this is what Keith tells himself when the Team makes a collective effort to kill him.
☼☼☼
Or, the one in which lance might have killed the wrong keith and the very idea causes lance to give everyone the stink eye.





	

**Author's Note:**

> lookie here we got a sequel thing. this could be stand alone i guess, but i suggest you read "Lance Squared and Other Non-Math Problems" first. either way man idc
> 
> aNyways ok this was fun to write so much dRama i like the drama i do i do
> 
> ... i was gonna say something else i swear
> 
> uh
> 
> kLANCE

Keith is loyal.

He is stubborn, impulsive, and easily-angered. He is antisocial, blunt, and overly competitive.

But _dammit_ he's _loyal_. Maybe not as loyal as Lance, but - well, Keith doesn't think _anyone_ is as loyal as _Lance._

Perhaps, when faced with the kind of problem with which they are all currently faced, loyalty becomes irrelevant. In Keith's mind, it does not.

"Lance, maybe you should come stand by me," Hunk says, smiling nervously. "Uh, just in case, you know?"

Lance hasn't said much to the Team since being rescued. He answers with nods and shakes of the head as often as he can, and when he can't, he uses one-word answers. Pidge tried to teach him how to use sign language, in case he had some sort of PTSD connected to speaking, but that didn't work. Or maybe it did, a little - all Lance ever did was repeatedly sign curse words. Pidge got in trouble for teaching him those in the first place, but, secretly, the whole Team appreciated the tiny return of the Lance they were used to.

Anyways, Lance doesn't say anything now, either. He signs a few choice words, though.

"It's… for your own good, Lance," Pidge says cautiously. Their smile stretches into something fake, something that Lance doesn't like. He scoots closer to Keith, who automatically puts a gentle arm around his waist. In the past week, Keith has learned that Lance likes feeling grounded. A gentle touch is something that helps.

"Don't," Shiro says, voice low. The lights of his prosthetic hand are blinking in and out, as though Shiro is torn between attacking and staying peaceful. This does bad things to Keith's mood. Keith tightens his hold on Lance's waist, which is something that Lance doesn't mind but which the rest of the Team minds very much. "Keith," Shiro warns, but the name sounds different, _feels_ different than it should.

"I'm not-" Keith takes a deep breath, trying to control his temper. "I'm not the shapeshifter. I'm _Keith."_

"Of course! And we're not one hundred percent saying that you _aren't_ Keith," Hunk assures him, putting up two placating hands.

"Oh, really."

"Really!" Coran insists.

"We're just taking the necessary precautions," Shiro explains, warily eying Keith's arm around Lance's waist.

"Shapeshifters revert to their original form when killed," Allura says for the fiftieth time. Keith doesn't understand why she keeps expecting it to calm him down. "And our shapeshifter…"

"Didn't," Pidge finishes, narrowing their eyes.

Keith is getting angry. _Everyone_ can tell.

"Please, Lance?" Hunk asks desperately, eyes flitting from Lance to Keith and back again. "Just for a while, until we figure this out."

Lance shakes his head stubbornly and leans into Keith. Absently, Keith moves his right hand to hold Lance's right. It's awkward, but Lance is shaking a little and Keith doesn't like it.

"You need to stop," Keith growls at his Team (Lance excluded). "I haven't done _anything_ to warrant you all starting this- this _interrogation."_

Pidge's eyebrows shoot up. Shiro purses his lips. Hunk scratches the back of his neck.

"Seriously!?" Keith asks, eyes going wide. Lance frowns and steps away from Keith, and Keith is almost afraid.

But then Lance sticks out his tongue at the Team and grabs Keith's hand to pull him away, and Keith can breathe again. Lance is all he has, recently.

"Lance, wait, it's not safe!" Hunk calls, but Lance breaks into a run and so Keith is forced to follow suit. They end up locked in Keith's bedroom, and maybe Hunk pounds on the door for a while, but Pidge tells him to cut it out ("At least we can't hear any screaming") and so Lance and Keith allow themselves time to breathe.

"You okay?" Keith asks, looking up at the blue-eyed boy on his bed.

Lance hums and rests his head on Keith's shoulder. "Yeah. You?"

The Red Paladin lets out a heavy sigh. "I guess so." For a moment it's silent as Lance traces the creases on Keith's jacket. "How long do you think this will last?"

Lance shrugs noncommittally.

"… Are you okay?" Keith asks slowly. "You usually, uh, talk more. When we're alone, I mean."

"Sorry," Lance mumbles.

Keith frowns. "Don't be." He thinks a moment, then swallows a little too loudly for his own liking. "Are you- Do you… Are you afraid I'm not really… me?"

The other boy raises his head slightly. "'Course not," he says, furrowing his eyebrows. "It's just that- I-I know you're the real Keith, I know because I feel like I'm _worth_ something when I'm with you. But- But that means the fake you is still alive."

Keith tilts his head, and Lance bites his lip and scoots as close as he can to Keith without flat-out being on the other boy's lap. "What do you mean?" Keith asks.

"Since the shapeshifter didn't 'revert to its original form' when I shot it, it must not be dead," Lance explains. "So it's still out there somewhere."

"Oh," Keith says smartly. Lance shudders slightly and shakes his head. "Hey, don't worry. I won't let that thing find you again, I swear."

Lance is smart. He knows what "I swear" means. He knows that it isn't a guarantee.

He smiles anyway. For Keith.

* * *

Coran finds the airlock has been recently used. He can't figure out why, and he brushes it aside as a minor ship malfunction. 

The ship stops veering left.

* * *

Lance wakes up in Keith's arms, as he often does. 

In the beginning, sleeping beside Keith each night had certainly not been the plan. But the night after exiting the med pod had proved to be a terrible one in terms of nightmares that seemed a little too real, and Lance found himself seeing fists when he closed his eyes and blades when he fell asleep. He couldn't breathe when he woke up that first time, and if Keith hadn't been a doting caretaker kept awake by guilt then Lance might've stayed awake all night. But Keith _was_ a doting caretaker, and so he heard Lance's terrified yelp and ran to assist.

Lance ended up in Keith's room, and Keith's arm around him became a shield that pushed the nightmares away.

It became a regular thing, because Lance was afraid and he still is. He figures that, even when the trauma dies down (if it ever does), he will still prefer to sleep in Keith's room.

As stated, Lance wakes up in Keith's arms. But this is one of the few mornings where Lance is the first to awaken, and so he plants a kiss to Keith's forehead (no more than a wisp of air and a light fluttering of lips against skin) and quietly disentangles himself from Keith's body. Lance slips out the door and shuts it tightly behind him so none of the other paladins can wake up Keith.

The dining hall is grimly quiet when Lance enters. Hunk is swallowing too often and moving his food goo around arbitrarily with his spork, and Lance wonders if he's ever seen the other boy so uncomfortable. Pidge is tapping furiously at a slab of Altean technology in their hand, their glasses glinting with the light and reflecting distorted images of an alien with shapeshifting abilities. Shiro is arguing with Allura about something, keeping his arms crossed firmly as Allura sighs and looks down at the floor.

Lance waves pettily as he slides into his usual chair.

"Lance!" Hunk greets him immediately upon noticing his arrival. "Um, I made your favorite food goo recipe this morning!"

Lance smiles as well as he can and nods, hoping it comes across as grateful. With Keith, it's easy - or, at the very least, easier \- because Keith seems to know better than anyone else what he's been through. When Lance glances at Pidge tapping away with some advanced program on their laptop and then swallows too hard and looks down at his hands, Keith, ever present, whispers to Lance a quiet reassurance. _"You know, Lance, you're pretty smart. Not Pidge smart, but Lance smart. It's different, but I think it's equal, in a way."_ As though having read his mind, Keith knows. Sometimes Hunk will hug Lance very tightly and Lance will force a grin, and when Hunk releases him Keith will tell Lance about how _"Hunk is lucky to have you as a best friend. I don't think he could ask for anyone better."_ Shiro makes a concentrated effort not to be too hard on Lance so soon after the rescue, but sometimes Lance messes up and he freezes in place and he can't move, he can't breathe. Keith covers for him whenever it happens, praises him for the things he did right and encourages him with the things he did wrong. _"Shiro, don't you think Lance is improving?"_ When Allura enters a room, all elegance and poise and perfect confidence, Lance can't make eye contact, but that's okay because Keith is always there to make eye contact _for_ him and to follow it up with a light affirmation in Lance's ear of, _"The whole Team's a pretty good fit, don't you think? At first, we seemed pretty rag-tag, but now we **all** have our place."_ Coran covers each paladin in food goo, leaving the princess unscathed behind him, and Lance stutters but Keith says, "Coran's a better warrior than all of us," and then whispers to Lance, _"But you and I, we'll catch up to him soon."_

When Keith looks up at Lance, Lance fights the urge to whimper. Sometimes he _can't_ fight it, and he ends up backing up, running into a wall and nearly hyperventilating. But Keith says, _"I won't hurt you. You're priceless, Lance. I love you,"_ and Lance finds a sort of peace in Keith's voice.

Lance feels safe with Keith. He feels right, and purposeful, and worth something. It's like the torture never happened.

Except it did.

"Lance? Hey, are you okay?" Pidge asks, peering up at him over their glasses, and Lance snaps to attention.

"S-Sorry," he stammers, and Pidge smiles sadly.

"It's okay," they shrug. "Sorry for scaring you, though."

Lance only nods, and Pidge and Hunk and Shiro and Allura and even Coran, who has just now entered the room, are left to look on with guilty, regretful eyes.

Lance wishes he had woken Keith.

As though a well-timed gift from the gods of space, Keith strides through the door, eyes dark and tone darker. "Keith!" Lance nearly shouts, standing up too quickly and sending his chair gliding backwards. The Blue Paladin flushes and reaches back to steady his chair, and Keith wordlessly takes the only empty seat.

"Bad morning?" asks Pidge, trying to stay neutral.

"You could call it that," Keith deadpans, and Lance suddenly feels terrible for not waking him up as he should have. He can't bring himself to look at anything but his hands.

"Listen, Keith," Shiro begins, and Keith looks up and raises an eyebrow judgmentally. "We were talking, and- We shouldn't have questioned you so quickly without even getting any solid proof first. We'll try to be more civil from now on."

Allura crosses her arms. "Though you'll understand if we're a bit cautious, as well."

"Yeah, sure," Keith mutters, shrugging slightly as he shovels gourmet food goo into his mouth. He glances over at Lance. "Could you maybe scoot over a little?"

Lance splutters out a mess of "sorry"s and the like as he frantically scoots away to give Keith more space. He still can't bring himself to look up, and now his eyes are pooling with tears, as much as he hates it.

Keith snorts. "Slow down and think before you speak."

Lance nods obediently and squeezes his eyes shut, and then he flickers a false smile at the Team, stands up, pushes his chair in, and runs.

"Keith, what the _hell,"_ Pidge hisses, and Shiro would usually shoot them a scolding glare but right now he's just appalled by Keith's actions, however subtle.

"Go apologize," Shiro growls before he can stop himself.

"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so…" Keith shrugs and sporks another bite of goo. "Maybe later."

Hunk is appalled. He leaves the room in order to retain his pacifistic ways.

Allura shakes her head disapprovingly. "I can't tell if you _are_ the shapeshifter or if you're just back to being the insensitive Keith we're used to," she snaps before turning and walking away. Her hair swings around behind her and nearly smacks Shiro in the face. He's a little too offended to care all that much.

"Watch your back, mullet boy," Pidge threatens.

Surprisingly enough, Keith isn't very scared.

* * *

Meanwhile, Lance is rocking back and forth on the wide windowsill, hugging his knees to his chest and trying his best to take deep breaths. The castle walls help, he tells himself. They help because they're real, he can touch them and they're real and it's hard to shift into the form of an ancient flying castle ship, Lance thinks to himself. It must be, it's an ancient flying castle ship. 

For a few long seconds, Lance is entertained by the thought so much that he manages to breathe. Then the entertaining thought fades, and his calm does, too.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," Lance mutters to himself as though a mantra meant to give him strength. Back at the odd, secluded Galra prison, it was a shield designed to keep him safe. Unfortunately for Lance, it never did seem to work all that well. The shapeshifter didn't care that Lance was sorry, sorry to have messed up, sorry to have gotten captured, sorry to have ever been born in the first place. The shapeshifter didn't care because Lance wasn't worth caring about.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please, I'm so sorry!" the boy sobs into his knees. As Keith approaches, he thinks to himself that Lance looks far too small and helpless when curled up like this, and with this thought, Keith breaks into a run.

"Lance, shh, it's okay, it's okay," Keith coos immediately upon reaching the broken boy on the windowsill. His voice is soft and low, strong and steady so Lance doesn't have to be. "Hey, Lance, hey, shh… I've got you now." Lance wants to relax with Keith's arms wrapped around him, but he can't, he can't and he hates it because he knows this is the only comfort he has these days.

Reluctantly, Lance pushes away, frantically shaking his head as he tries to stop his own tears.

This does not go over well with Keith. "Lance..?" he asks worriedly. He leans in closer, having settled down on the windowsill next to Lance. "It's just me. Keith."

Lance cries harder and rocks more desperately, and Keith curses under his breath.

"Hey, that's all right, it's okay. Uh-" He should know how to handle this, he should know because he's been handling it all week, been throwing out quiet reassurances that he didn't know he had in some frantic effort to take Lance's pain away. But his desperation has taken him this far and he should've known it couldn't carry him forever, and now Keith's lack of social skills, lack of knowing what the hell to do, is shining through like an Altean upgrade without the power source to make it worth anything. "Just, just cry it out," Keith guesses, cringing at his own words the moment they leave his mouth. Come on, what has worked before?

The same old words, Keith supposes, but somehow those words that previously worked wonders just don't seem like enough right now.

"Lance, I- I, c-can you tell me what's wrong? I just want to help-"

By some miracle, Lance finds the courage to look up, and Keith whispers, "it's okay, Lance," and Lance lurches forward and throws his arms around Keith.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Lance wails, but he won't let go of Keith. His hands are balled up around the Red Paladin's jacket and his head is buried in the crook of the Red Paladin's neck, and the Red Paladin himself is bewildered and very out of his element but then again this is _Lance_ and Lance is always his element.

Keith doesn't have the brainpower to make himself make sense. He holds Lance until they both calm down.

* * *

The next time the rest of the Team sees Lance, he's clinging desperately to Keith's side 

"I assume you apologized?" Allura asks tersely, and Keith opens his mouth and then closes it again.

"Uh, yeah," he replies, because he guesses he must have done _something_ wrong.

"Took you long enough," Pidge mutters to themselves.

Keith swallows hard, a little confused but not entirely willing to show it. He's walking on eggshells with these guys, and if he makes one wrong move then he knows he'll end up floating through space all on his own, left to die. It's not a good feeling, and Keith longs for a week prior when no one doubted his loyalty, his identity, when no one threatened to throw him 'overboard' if he messed up. Then again, there was no Lance a week prior, not properly, and so Keith decides he can deal with the present time just fine.

Regardless, he needs a bit of time to compose himself. "I, uh- Bathroom," he says elegantly, and Lance squeezes his hand a little too tightly. "I'll be right back," Keith promises, gesturing for Lance to sit down on the couch of the common room. "Don't worry, you're safe here."

Lance nods stiffly and pretends to relax, and Keith practically runs from the room.

"You really shouldn't be clinging to him so much," Hunk says, and Lance's heart beats double time in his chest. _Too clingy, so annoying, Keith doesn't want you-_ "Uh, wait, I didn't mean it like that!" Hunk insists, trying hard to cover up his mistake. "I just- I mean, I'm worried about you, man."

Lance nods, pretending he understands. Hunk bites his lip.

Keith reenters the room with a frown on his face but a smile in his eyes, and Lance doesn’t quite know how to feel about that. But then Keith plops down on the couch, making Lance bounce a little (he's even skinnier now than he was _before_ his capture, which Keith usually considers to be a terrible thing), and Lance relaxes and curls into Keith's side.

"Mm," Keith hums, staring down at Lance appraisingly. "Okay, you've had your time. That's enough." Rather unceremoniously, he shoves Lance away, and Lance barely catches himself in time to avoid falling off the couch.

"O-Oh," Lance stammers, and then he clamps his mouth shut in order to avoid speaking before thinking.

"Hey, Lance, you can cuddle with me!" Hunk suggests, though he'll admit he's a little torn between hugging Lance and hitting Keith. Regardless, all he does is sit down gently on the couch and allow Lance to scoot warily closer.

"Thanks," Lance murmurs as he burrows into Hunk's jacket, but his side hurts from Keith's shove and his heart does, too.

"Clingy," Keith sings under his breath. Lance has never heard Keith sing. He finds that it is not as pretty as he imagined, but then again the lyrics might be leaving him biased.

"Whatever," Keith sighs, rolling his eyes. "I'm going to the training deck." He shoots a glare at Lance. "And I guess you'll be following me?"

Lance doesn't understand why he nods, but he does.

"Thought so," Keith mutters, striding out of the room, and Lance jumps out of Hunk's hold and trails along after Keith like a lost puppy.

"Please tell me that's proof enough," Hunk begs, and Shiro frowns.

* * *

The training deck is quiet, but the echoes of their shoes against the floor make it loud. 

"Spar with me?" Keith asks, smirking terribly. Lance swallows hard and reminds himself to think before speaking.

"Sure," he manages, voice as steady as he figures it'll go these days.

"Cool," Keith replies simply, drawing a practice sword from somewhere in the training deck. "Hope you don't mind if I don't go easy."

"Um," Lance squeaks, because he thinks he knows where this is going and he doesn't like it.

Before Lance can so much as scold himself for stuttering, Keith is launching himself at him, grazing a foreign practice sword down Lance's arm and laughing when Lance yelps in pain. "Wait, K-Keith-" Lance begins, but then his head is spinning because he wasn't fast enough to block Keith's punch.

"Hopeless," Keith snorts. "You can't even defend yourself."

Lance shakes his head frantically, fingers fumbling with the bayard attached to his hip. "W-Wait, please, just let me get ready-"

"You think the Galra will 'let you get ready?'" Keith asks. "I promise you they won't."

Lance doesn't like that sentence. The word "promise" should be pure and safe when it comes from Keith's mouth, but now it just feels tainted and scary.

Keith knocks Lance's bayard out of his hand in one swift motion, and Lance figures it's time he accepts his defeat but he can't because he shouldn't have to be accepting defeat, Keith said he wouldn't hurt him, Keith said he would protect him, Keith said he _loved him_ and maybe this is payback? Maybe this is revenge because Lance has never said it back, never except for that one time after shooting the shapeshifter, maybe Lance hasn't been enough, hasn't been good enough, will never be good enough, Lance _deserves_ this-

Keith slams his fist into Lance's throat and Lance can't breathe _he can't breathe._ "Keith, please, Keith," he rasps, and he doesn't like how broken he sounds, he was so close to feeling like he was worth something again. Was this the plan all along? Make him trust Keith, and then, when Keith got tired of playing around with him, Keith could give him everything he deserved. And Lance fell for it, Lance let himself believe that he was something more than nothing, he's such a fool _such a fool_ this is what Lance _gets_ for falling in love with someone so far above him.

"Pitiful," Keith spits, and Lance's mind flashes back to a dark and dirty cell on a deserted planet with nothing but hateful, distorted versions of his friends to keep him company.

"Please, Keith, I’m so sorry," Lance whimpers, screwing his eyes shut.

"You should be," Keith hisses, and then he walks away, leaving Lance quivering on the floor of the training deck.

Alone.

But not for long, because then Hunk and Shiro are bursting onto the training deck, and Hunk is babbling, something like _"I knew this would happen, why didn't I stop him!?"_ And Shiro is easily picking Lance up, cradling him in his strong arms, and Lance is just sobbing, sobbing into Shiro's chest because it's all he knows to do and Keith's warm, safe arms don't feel all that inviting anymore.

"Coran's getting a healing pod ready," Pidge blurts, skidding into the room. "Take him straight there. How bad did he hurt him?"

"I think the emotional damage is worse than the physical," Shiro sighs, wincing slightly. "Where's Allura?"

"Locking down the castle. We have to find the shapeshifter before it can mess with any of our tech."

Shiro curses under his breath as he jogs toward the med pods. "It's probably already sent some kind of signal back to the Galra, tell the princess to open up a wormhole for after we get rid of the shapeshifter."

"Wait- Wait, does this mean Lance actually killed Keith back on that planet?" Hunk asks slowly, blanching slightly as Pidge runs away to find Allura again.

Shiro pales, too. "I- We'll talk about this later."

"Oh, god," Hunk groans.

"It was all a trick, all a trick," Lance wails.

"Shh, hey, buddy, we're getting you right to the med pods, okay?" Hunk assures him as they run. "We'll get rid of the shapeshifter."

"'I won't hurt you, you're priceless, I love you,'" Lance repeats to himself, over and over. "A-All, all a trick, all-"

Shiro squeezes Lance tightly and then shoves him right into the med pod, and Coran jabs a few buttons and then leans back against one of the closed med pods. "Find the shapeshifter?"

"No, he was gone when we got to the training deck," Shiro reports, and Allura practically flies into the room.

"Find him, now! I've got the castle on lockdown, but I want the shapeshifter killed immediately," Allura commands, hair already put up in a bun. She glances at Lance's sleeping form, and there's sadness in her eyes. "We should've attacked him the moment we found out he hadn't died."

"We had to be sure we weren't hurting our Keith," Shiro replies, managing to keep calm despite the circumstance. "It couldn't be helped. But now that we know…"

"You three, track down the shapeshifter. Dispose of him, one way or another," Allura orders. "Coran, watch over Lance. I'll be in the control room working on the wormhole. Quickly, now!"

"Yes, Princess!" Coran replies, standing up straight. Shiro, Hunk, and Pidge dart out of the room, and Allura is quick to follow.

With sharp eyes, Coran watches the door.

* * *

"Open up!" Pidge yells, giving Keith about two seconds of response time before they crouch down to begin hacking their way past the door's paladin-specific defense system. 

"Calm down!" Keith yells back, mildly annoyed. He's staring into the mirror, into his own eyes, wondering what the others see when they look at him.

Keith loves Lance, and he's tried his best to show it, specifically in this past week since Lance's rescue. Lance _needs_ to know that he's loved - where has Keith failed? What has he done to make Lance sob all on his own on a quiet windowsill, refusing to let Keith hold him? What has he done to make the rest of his Team, for all of whom he would give his life, see him as a threat?

He gets mad a lot, but he doesn't make a habit of hurting the only people who have ever shown him kindness.

"Open the door or we'll be forced to take drastic measures," Shiro's level voice filters through the crack beneath the door. Keith freezes, eyes widening in horror. Are they here to-?

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Keith shouts, running out of the bathroom and touching the bayard on his hip to assure himself that it's there. He doesn't want to hurt anyone, but he doesn't want to die, either. Lance needs him. 

"What do you want-" he begins, carefully opening the door, and before he can so much as draw his bayard, Shiro has him hung over his shoulder. "Hey!" Keith protests, slamming his fists against Shiro's back. Shiro flinches, but otherwise doesn't seem to care. "Hey, what the hell? Put me down!"

"You're lucky you look too much like Keith for us to shoot you," Hunk grumbles, eyes shooting daggers.

_"What!?"_ Keith says, voice cracking shamefully.

"Oh, just shut up," Pidge huffs, running ahead of Shiro to let their hand hover over the airlock. "We know you're not Keith."

"I _am_ Keith!" Keith argues, rather angrily. "What the _hell,_ guys!?"

"With how you've been treating Lance lately?" Hunk snorts. "I don't think so, man. Keith is moody, but he would never hurt Lance like that."

"Wha- I've been treating Lance like a, like a-" Keith flounders, struggling to find the right word. "Like something really special! Like- Like a _boyfriend!"_

"That's sick," Pidge frowns. "Shiro, are you ready?"

The Black Paladin nods grimly. "Yeah, both doors at once so we can make sure he's thrown out. Everyone hold onto something."

"I'd hold onto our stable, healthy friendship if we still had one!" Keith screeches.

Pidge glares at him for a long while.

And then they open the airlock.

Shiro promptly lets go of Keith before clinging onto a ridge in the wall nearby, and Keith screams more than a few insults before being sucked out into space.

Pidge closes the airlock.

"Time to give Allura the go-ahead?" they ask.

Shiro nods, and the three paladins trudge toward the control room.

* * *

Sharp eyes. Very sharp, rather sharp. Quite sharp. A good deal of sharpness, Coran would say. 

Fairly good reflexes, too, Coran thinks to himself as he karate chops the shapeshifter. He's never had an excuse to fight Keith before, and the paladins usually keep the sparring amongst themselves, but he's always wondered how he might shape up against the Red Paladin in a fight. As it turns out, Coran shapes up quite well. He _is_ the Royal Advisor after all - and Royal Advisors (by Coran's definition, at least), must be able to protect those precious few who they advise.

Coran does not advise Lance. He tried once, and Lance got smacked by an alien girl.

Regardless, Coran tends to spread his protective abilities over the entirety of the Paladins _as well as_ the princess. And so right now, the shapeshifter with Keith's form is getting his butt whooped.

At least, Coran believes this is the correct term.

"Just step- aside- old man-" the Keith copycat pants, blowing air out through clenched teeth as he finally pins Coran to the wall.

"Aha, no can do!" Coran pipes cheerfully, crouching down and swiping an arm across the back of the shapeshifter's knees. The creature yells rather Keith-ly as its knees buckle beneath it, and Coran hums to himself. Keith - the shapeshifter, that is - has done quite the awful job of becoming Keith, when Coran looks back on things. Yes, Keith is moody and fairly angry a good deal of the time, but his mood doesn't change _nearly_ as quickly as it has in the past few days. One moment he's a terrible person - leaves the room, and he comes back a caring sort of boyfriend! Not right, Coran thinks to himself, shaking his head as he stares down at the shapeshifter on the floor.

It suddenly occurs to Coran that he never did fix that veering-left dealy with the ship's movement - it up and fixed itself, as though the problem itself had been effortlessly removed.

It suddenly occurs to Coran that airlocks and the like do not tend to open and close without reason.

_It suddenly occurs to Coran that he is rather disappointed in himself as the Royal Advisor._

But one must make do with one's mistakes. Coran knows his paladins, and he knows how to make do. "Emergency voice activated access code three-one-nine: open the hangars!"

Unfortunately for Coran, making do requires a certain amount of concentration, a certain amount of concentration that he really ought to have been focusing on the shapeshifter jumping to its feet in front of him. "Well, this was fun," the shapeshifter huffs, and with a single well-aimed punch, Coran falls.

"Lance, babe," the shapeshifter coos as he forces the med pod open. "What's up?"

* * *

Keith screams more than a few insults before being sucked out into space.

He thinks, vaguely, that he did not expect to die like this. Yes, perhaps suffocation and-or implosion in open space is a fine way to go for the average human, but Keith has a giant mecha lion and so he has always considered himself immune to such a thing. Rather, he imagined he might go via the gunshots of the Galra or, less gallantly, the poison of suspiciously 'not-stale' food goo.

Keith is correct in his thinking. Not about the food poisoning, but about the immunity to space - more or less.

Red bursts out of the hangars with perfect, god-sent timing, and before Keith can delve any deeper into thoughts of alternative deaths, he finds himself closed in the mouth of his lion.

"Red? You are _amazing,"_ Keith laughs. Red hums something along the lines of _You can say that again,_ and Keith snorts and scrambles to his feet. "Do you think the others saw you save me?"

Red doesn't answer the question; rather, the lion suddenly attacks Keith's mind with pinpricks of anxiety.

"What's wrong?" Keith asks, furrowing his eyebrows. "I don't-" A beam of light cuts him off.

The Galra have arrived.

* * *

"Something doesn't feel right," Allura says lowly, her back straight as a ruler. 

"Yeah, we're about to have a nice little run-in with the Galra," Pidge huffs in exasperation. "Definitely not right."

"We got rid of the shapeshifter," Shiro assures the princess. "It's safe to leave, and Pidge is right - we need to get out of here before the Galra show up."

"No, there's- there's something wrong," Allura says firmly. "I will not pull up the wormhole until it is made right."

The control panel flashes red and alarms blare all over the ship, and Pidge throws their hands up into the air. "What did I tell you!?" they shout.

"Is that 'not right' enough for you?" Hunk asks.

"That isn't it," Allura insists. She steels herself and turns to face the control panel again. "Our particle barrier will hold for a good many more ticks. Meanwhile, I want you three to find out what's wrong and _fix it."_

"How can we _possibly_ know what's wrong when all you've given us to go off of is your little hunch-" Pidge begins.

"Lance," Hunk whispers. His voice rises quickly. "It has to be Lance! We didn't check on him and Coran before we ran up here, what if they're hurt?"

"Why would they be hurt?" Pidge asks. "We got rid of the shapeshifter, so-"

"No," Shiro sighs, clearly holding back a groan as he stares out the window, _"we_ got rid of _Keith."_

Allura and the other two paladins immediately direct their gazes to follow Shiro's, and, sure enough- There's Keith, piloting Red like it's his destiny, and Shiro knows that it is. "We threw Keith out into space, but, somehow, Red managed to catch him."

"The hangars were opened mere minutes ago," reports Allura, peering down at the control panel, "by a voice activated emergency protocol."

"Coran," Pidge offers. "He must have figured it out."

"But we _know_ Keith hasn't been acting right lately, so-" Hunk begins.

"The shapeshifter is in the castle," Shiro confirms. "And it's likely after Lance, the only paladin who isn't in a state to fight back."

"Go!" Allura commands. "Keith and I will keep the Galra at bay for as long as we can."

"On it," Hunk shouts, and he and Pidge sprint towards the med pods.

"Shiro?" Allura asks.

"Open the hangar again," Shiro says. "I'm going out there to help Keith."

* * *

"Silly boy," the shapeshifter laughs, dragging Lance along by the hood of his jacket. "You thought you could escape? You'll _never_ be able to escape."

"'I won't hurt you, you're priceless, I love you,'" Lance whimpers, over and over as though that will save him. It doesn't, but Lance doesn't stop trying.

"Priceless? Please," the shapeshifter snorts. Lance doesn't like hearing that tone mixed with Keith's voice. Not when the intent is so… dark. "You're hardly worth the clothes you're wearing."

"'I won't hurt you, you're priceless, I love you.'"

"Ah, you think I love you. That’s funny. Good one."

"'I won't, won't hurt you, I won't hurt you you're priceless I love you I love you,'" Lance babbles and his words hardly even make sense anymore.

Lance is desperate. He doesn't want to go back to that… place. He wants to stay here, with the Keith that loves him and holds him when he's scared!

Where did that Keith go?

Lance doesn't know and this Keith doesn't seem to know, either. "Hey, shut up," the mean Keith snaps, pausing to backhand Lance across the face. "No one wants to hear your obnoxious voice."

Lance shuts up.

The mean Keith drags Lance down, down, down to the part of the castle where Sendak used to be held in the cryopods. "Did you know this room used to be used for executions?" Mean Keith asks. Lance did not, so he shakes his head. He wonders where Keith got this information, and also why it applies. Luckily for Lance, this mean Keith is quite fond of answering this sort of question. "These pods are lifted into the air when they're set on execution mode," Mean Keith explains. "There's a countdown so the executioner can stop the execution if he has to. But after that… Electrocution." Lance pales. "A fine way to go. And, better yet, the others won't find your body and get suspicious until it's already too late." The shapeshifter curses under his breath. "Crap. I should've hidden the old man…"

When Lance closes his eyes, he can almost pretend it isn't Keith speaking to him.

"Doesn't matter. I'll work fast," the mean Keith mutters. He yanks Lance to his feet and looks him over appraisingly for a moment.

Lance blinks rapidly to clear away his tears and tries his best to make eye contact. It doesn't last.

"Worthless," Mean Keith spits, shaking his head. "I don't know why they tried to save you."

Suddenly, Lance can't help it anymore. He lurches forward and throws his arms around Keith, burying his face in Keith's typical black shirt. "Please, Keith, please make it stop, please, I love you, I'll be better, please, I'm sorry," comes the muffled plea. "Please love me again, Keith, please, please make it better!"

"Love you _again?"_ Keith asks, and Lance pretends he can hear sympathy. "I never loved you in the first place," Keith laughs, and Lance's heart shatters.

Keith rolls his eyes and shoves Lance away, and the Blue Paladin simply collapses on the floor, head in his hands, heart in his stomach. He can't quite remember how to breathe.

"You're pitiful. Get in the pod." 

* * *

"Coran!" Hunk shouts, eyes wide as he drops to his knees next to the brain-scrambled advisor.

"The boy, eh- Lance!" Coran mutters, sitting up as well as he can. "Lance, the shapeshifter!"

"You're hurt!" Pidge notices.

"Not as badly as Lance will be," Coran insists.

"Um…" Hunk cringes. "Okay, we'll be back for you! Pidge, let's go!"

"I'll catch up later!" Coran calls after them as they dart away.

"Where do we even look?" Hunk asks desperately as they run aimlessly down a corridor.

"I don't know, uh- his room?" Pidge suggests.

"The shapeshifter wouldn't take Lance to his own room, that's too obvious," Hunk replies, shaking his head.

"Uh, okay, so- somewhere we wouldn't think to look?"

"The training deck..?"

Pidge shakes their head almost immediately. "Not after we found them there last time."

"The hangar?"

"The Galra are attacking, we'd have to go to our lions eventually."

"Oh, right, right. Uh… The prisoner pod thingies?"

Pidge seems to consider this for a moment. "Would the shapeshifter even know about that place?"

"I mean, if Zarkon told him, then I guess he would."

There's silence for a moment, and then Pidge nods sharply. "We're going there."

The two arrive with little time to spare. Shapeshifter Keith is repeatedly hitting a button on the side of the podium that controls one of the pods, and Lance is rocking back and forth in the pod, which is suspended in the air.

"Fricking- Damn Altean tech- jammed-" the shapeshifter grumbles as he hits the button harder.

"Ten thousand years tends to do that to some things," Pidge huffs, putting their hands on their hips.

"Oh, it's the little girl," the shapeshifter scoffs, rolling his eyes.

"Excuse you?" Pidge asks, raising their eyebrows.

"Lance!" Hunk cries, running to the base of where the pod usually is. "Lance, climb down, the door's jammed!"

Lance doesn't respond, too busy breathing too quickly and rocking too frantically.

"He's having a panic attack," Pidge realizes, cursing under their breath. "Hunk, help me take this guy!"

"On it!" Hunk yells, and then the two of them are tackling shapeshifter Keith to the ground. Keith might train more than any of the other paladins, but Pidge is offended and Hunk is vengeful and, honestly, the mean Keith doesn't stand a chance.

"Clear!" Pidge shrieks, and Hunk salutes and jumps away a split second before Pidge jabs their bayard right into the shapeshifter's stomach. He cries out and collapses in a heap, and Pidge runs to the podium to get Lance down.

"Hey, Lance, don't worry, buddy! We're getting you down now," Hunk calls, hoping to calm his friend down.

"No, we aren't," Pidge groans, and Hunk runs to join them at the podium.

"What's wrong?"

"This moron was right, the panel's completely jammed. I can't close the door and I definitely can't get the pod to come down." Pidge frowns and adjusts their glasses, leaning closer to the screen. "What's this countdown for..?"

"Execution," the shapeshifter singsongs, and Pidge shocks him again before even registering his words.

"Execu- Whoa, hold on, what!?" Hunk squeaks, looking frantically between the pod and the podium. "No way, there has to be a way to stop this."

"I'm _trying,_ " Pidge yells in frustration. "I can't- nothing's responding, okay!? I can't do anything!"

"Okay, it's okay, we'll just- hey, we'll just get Lance to come down on his own, it can't be _that_ hard, right?"

"You have a minute and a half to talk Lance out of a trauma-induced panic attack," Pidge deadpans, and Hunk begins to panic.

"Uh, u-um, hey, Lance! Lance, uh, it's me, Hunk! Me and Pidge, we're trying to help you, but you have to help yourself, okay? Just- Just climb down, buddy!"

"That's not going to _work,"_ Pidge growls as Lance mumbles something about being a terrible friend. "Have either of us _ever_ had to talk him down since the rescue?"

"I mean, Keith has-"

"Keith!" Pidge yells, shocking the shapeshifter a third time as he begins to stand up. "We have to get Keith!"

"We have _one minute!"_ Hunk yells back.

"Allura! Allura, can you hear me!? Ship, activate voice control or something!" Pidge yells to the ceiling. _"Allura!"_

"Pidge!?" Allura's voice comes through a speaker hidden somewhere in the room.

"Allura!" Pidge breathes. "Tell Keith to get down here, we're in the Sendak room! He has _forty-five seconds_ to save Lance's life."

"I'm on it," Keith's voice assures them, and Pidge and Hunk can hear the distinct roar of a certain Red lion faintly from outside the castle.

Keith skids into the room within the impressive time of twenty seconds, and he does a fantastic job of acting almost immediately upon entry. "Lance!" he barks, sprinting up to the base of the pod.

Lance bites his lip to stifle a cry, and his rocking quickens.

_"Twenty seconds!"_ Pidge shouts.

"Lance, listen to me!" Keith screams, as gently as he can considering the situation and the distance between them. "Lance, you _have to climb down!_ Jump, even, I swear I'll catch you!"

"You have to get through to him!" Pidge demands.

"Damn it, I _know!"_ Keith cries desperately. "Lance, listen. Listen to the sound of my voice. I love you, okay? I love you so much and I don't want to lose you. Please, please come down!"

"'I won't hurt you, you're priceless, I love you," Lance murmurs, rocking a little more slowly now.

_"Ten fricking seconds!"_

"Yes, yes, exactly! I won't hurt you, Lance, you're priceless and I _love you!"_

Lance takes in a deep, shuddering breath. "I-I- I don't-"

"Lance, _jump!"_

The Blue Paladin was a child once, and he remembers thinking he could fly. He remembers building flimsy cardboard wings, believing that they could carry him to far away planets, or, at the very least, the neighbor's roof. But the moment little Lance jumped, he fell, and all he thought in that moment was that he was afraid.

Now Lance is wingless. He cannot fly. He knows he will fall.

But he's not afraid, because he has Keith to catch him.

Lance's hair stands on end, which is a testimony in itself as to how close Lance was to being 'executed.' Keith holds him like he thought he'd never see him again, and, in those last few moments, he'll admit that it really felt like that might be the case.

"Mean Keith?" Lance asks, wincing a little afterwards.

"No," Keith laughs, but he's crying, too, which is a very not-Keith thing to do but damn it he almost lost Lance. Keith almost lost Lance and he doesn't know what he would've done if that had happened. "No, it's just me. Normal Keith."

"I love you," Lance mumbles as the two of them sink to the floor.

"Oh, god, Lance, I love you, too."

"Oh, cut the theatrics," the shapeshifter hisses, hooking an elbow around Keith's neck and pulling him upward and backward. Pidge glances down at their bayard and curses themselves. "The Galra have got you surrounded, I know. But if I can take out just one of you stupid paladins, I'll be counted as victorious. Zarkon will spare me-"

"Cut the theatrics," Lance repeats in a whisper, pulling the trigger on his bayard, which was luckily still attached to his hip. The mean Keith gets a bullet through his head. A few seconds pass, and he gets a bullet through his stomach, too. Immediately, the shapeshifter cries out, a terrible sound that's shrill and desperate, a last will and testament. "Ha, _there's_ the weak point," Lance says, shooting him again.

The scream fades, and the creature shifts into an ugly greyish blob, still molded to look vaguely like Keith.

Lance shoots him again, just for good measure.

"Allura?" Pidge asks. They breathe out slowly and then sink down against the podium. "We killed the shapeshifter."

"There you go, taking all my credit," Lance murmurs, and Pidge has to fight back a grin.

"I destroyed about half the ships," Shiro's voice announces.

"Perfect," Allura says, sounding just as relieved as Pidge. "That's enough, I'll pull up the wormhole. Shiro, cover me as we go through."

"Yes, ma'am," Shiro replies.

"… Did we just win?" Hunk asks.

"You know? I think we might've," Keith replies, grinning widely.

Lance crawls over to him, wraps his arms around him, and refuses to let go.

And Keith doesn't mind.

* * *

"So, just to confirm..," Hunk trails off.

Keith holds up one finger. "I am not a shapeshifter." A second finger. "I am not a shapeshifter." A third finger. "And, lastly, I am not a shapeshifter."

"Oh my god, what?" Lance whispers. He tends to talk more now around the Team, but it's always in a whisper, as though that'll protect him somehow. It isn't perfect, but it's progress, and that's all Keith can ask for. "I totally thought you were a shapeshifter."

Keith rolls his eyes and elbows Lance gently, and Lance grins and cuddles into Keith's side.

"Okay, okay," Hunk laughs. "As secretary of the 'Keith Is Not a Shapeshifter' club, I now deem Keith _Not a Shapeshifter."_

"Secretary? Who's president?" Pidge asks, resting their head on their hand in amusement.

"Um, Lance, duh."

"Wha- Then who am I?" Keith asks.

_"Vice_ President."

"Actually, I'm Vice President, too," Lance informs them. "Keith can be, uh… the vice secretary."

The whole table gets a laugh out of that, and Keith is suddenly very glad that none of them died during the chaos of yesterday.

"But, seriously..," Shiro begins, and the laughter dies down. "We're all sorry for doubting you, Keith. We should've realized what was going on from the start."

"Thanks," Keith says, his smile soft and genuine. "Really, thanks."

"Well!" Coran says, standing up from his chair. "I think _this_ calls for a feast! A morning-after celebration, hmm?"

"Let's just call it a celebration," Lance suggests, and Hunk and Pidge giggle immaturely.

"Sounds lovely!" Allura exclaims, jumping up as well. "I'll prepare the drinks."

"I'll help with food!" Hunk yells, darting up to follow Coran to the kitchen.

"I'll go play video games," Pidge says, their voice nearly monotone. "Keith, are you coming?"

Lance sinks back a little, looking dejected.

"Come on, Lance," Pidge huffs, grabbing the boy's free hand. _"You_ don't even have a _choice."_

A wide grin breaks out on Lance's face, and Keith is sold on video games the moment Lance smiles. Shiro watches his space children go, and in the end he decides the video game tournament will need a referee - and probably a mediator, too.

"I've been practicing this level for weeks," Pidge boasts, plopping down on the couch with an Earth controller in hand. "There's no _way_ you guys will beat me."

"Don’t be so sure," Lance says, and when Pidge turns around to boot up the console, Lance leans over and rigs their controller. Keith stifles a laugh as Lance leans innocently back into Keith, and Pidge sits back down with the promise of victory already glittering across their glasses.

Against all odds, Lance wins.


End file.
